By Kevin Yamamura
The Sacramento Bee
Saturday 07 August 2004
Famed third-party candidate Ralph Nader has failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the California ballot as an independent after ditching his Green Party label of four years ago.
Nader had submitted slightly more than half of the 153,805 signatures required two hours before Friday's deadline, according to the secretary of state's office.
"We were not there, the last I heard," confirmed Peter Camejo, Nader's running mate and a two-time gubernatorial candidate who lives in Folsom.
The news could spell doom in the nation's biggest voting state for Nader, whom Democrats blamed for costing Democrat Al Gore the 2000 presidential election.
But Nader's campaign insisted that it would still reach the California ballot somehow, possibly by challenging the state's signature requirements in court or even assuming the spot of Green Party nominee David Cobb.
"We're taking approaches to make sure we have other options," said Nader spokesman Kevin Zeiss. "We plan to be on the ballot in California."
Democratic nominee John Kerry owns a significant lead over President Bush in California with or without Nader in the race, according to recent polls. Still, if Nader ultimately fails to reach the ballot in voter-heavy California, it could stifle his efforts elsewhere, political analysts said.
As of late Friday, the secretary of state's office reported that Nader had turned in a little more than 77,000 signatures. That number includes results from all but five of the state's 58 counties.
Camejo blamed Democrats for trying to keep Nader off the ballot nationwide and said it would be "very sad for the people of California to deny Nader supporters the right to vote for him."
Kerry spokesman Luis Vizcaino had no comment.
The Nader campaign has submitted signatures to make the ballot in 17 states, according to the campaign. The campaign believes it could be the Reform Party standard-bearer in seven states.
Despite receiving nearly 3 percent of the national vote as the Green candidate in 2000, Nader rejected the party label this time and chose to run as an independent. He tapped as his running mate Camejo, a Folsom businessman whom Nader endorsed for governor in 2002.
"California is a place where Nader should be able to mine some support," said Walter Stone, chairman of the University of California, Davis, political science department and an expert on third parties. "If he can't get on the ballot here, that's an indicator that his campaign is faltering compared to where it was four years ago.
"I think it will be harder for him to sustain an image that he's a serious and viable player if he can't get on the ballot in California."
In 2000, Nader courted voters by railing against the two major political parties, both of which he faulted as being controlled by special interests. Nader asserted there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans.
But with the nation fiercely divided over post-Sept. 11, 2001, policies and the war in Iraq, that argument rings hollow in 2004, Stone said.
"(Nader) can't just say, 'Sure, I affected the election, but who cares?' " Stone said. "That's just a much less compelling argument now."
Nader and Camejo had hoped the Green Party would endorse their ticket during its June convention, allowing the two to appear on the California ballot under the Green affiliation. But national party delegates opted instead to nominate Cobb, a Eureka lawyer.
Camejo said Friday that some pro-Nader Green Party activists are holding "emergency" talks to explore swapping out Cobb.
"The Green Party is very divided, and there's a crisis," said Camejo, who won the Green Party's non-binding California primary vote in March. "Any state Green Party can tell the national party, 'We don't accept your convention and we're putting Nader-Camejo on the ballot.' "
The Green Party has until Aug. 26 to decide which candidate it wants to run on the Nov. 2 general election ballot, said secretary of state spokeswoman Lauren Hersh.
But removing Cobb is highly unlikely, according to Green Party of California spokeswoman Beth Moore Haines.
"I think there would be considerable cost to California in good will toward the rest of the Greens in the nation if we did something like that," Haines said. "The hope is always that folks with similar values on different campaigns work as cooperatively as they can. But this would be one of the less collaborative strategies, and not one embraced by the Greens in California. And I'm a big Peter Camejo fan."
Camejo said the Nader campaign also is exploring legal challenges to requirements to reach the California ballot. Though the signature drive fell short, Camejo said, "you make an effort to see what you can get, and then see what else you can do."
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